There is hope

I'd like to introduce Next Generation FireWalls (NGFW). Firewalls designed to filter packets based on applications. To continue my analogy, the trucks loaded with malcode can't drive right past the check point, any more.

Other features incorporated in NGFWs:

Enforce company regulations: NGFWs are able to control user access to websites and online applications as required.

SSL Proxy: NGFWs are able to decrypt, inspect, and re-establish the encrypted SSL connection. This eliminates encryption as a method of hiding malware.

IDS/IPS: NGFWs have incorporated deep packet inspection-to the point where stand alone IDS/IPS devices are not required.

Active-Directory friendly: Many NGFWs are able to authorize application usage based upon individual user profiles or groups.

N-tuple?

Just about every blog post I've read about NGFWs mentioned tuples. I had no idea what they were. Hopefully, you do. If not, here's what I found out.

N-tuple is a collection of attributes. And, in the case of firewalls, these attributes are used to define access requirements. N is a place holder representing the number of attributes in the list. For example, a 5-tuple "firewall allow rule" might include:

Source IP address

Source port (typically: any)

Destination IP address

Destination port (80 or 443)

Destination protocol (typically TCP)

So, if the packet being inspected has all of the correct attributes, the firewall will allow it to pass.

Widening the 5-tuple

I thought I was "good to go" after figuring out what a tuple was. Then I read something about "widening the 5-tuple". Widen a tuple. Does that even make sense?

Let's see if it does.

As mentioned earlier, a first-generation firewall rule employs a collection of 5 attributes or 5-tuple. That is sufficient to carry out stateful port and protocol inspection, Network Address Translation, and Virtual Private Network technology.

A 5-tuple rule set is not sufficient for NGFWs. Next Generation Firewalls need additional attributes such as application type and user identity in order to work as advertised. To understand why, consider the port 80 analogy, one last time.

If it's discovered that the truck carrying malcode has an illegal license plate, the truck ain't going anywhere. The same applies to malcode. If its license plate — "application type" attribute — is incorrect, the malcode is blocked from continuing on.

The additional attributes or tuples are "widening the 5-tuple".

Confession time: I did not find a clear-cut explanation of how tuples relate to firewalls. But, article after article mentioned tuples. So, I jumped in. If my explanation is wrong, I hope firewall and database admins that better understand will bail me out.

Survey says

The Ponomen Institute just completed a survey of NGFWs for SourceFire, Inc. The infographic ( partially shown below) provides several interesting statistics, particularly what is driving interest in NGFWs and the percentage of respondents noticing performance degradation: